BETHEL — Hundreds of people are expected to join the fifth annual Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk on Sept. 27 at Bethel High School.

All of the proceeds will benefit the Lustgarten Foundation, the largest private foundation in the country devoted to funding pancreatic cancer research.

The 2.5-mile walk serves to raise awareness and research funding for the disease, which is the nation’s fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths.

With an overall survival rate of just seven percent over five years, pancreatic cancer has no early detection tests, no effective long-term treatments and, unless the cancer is surgically removed in its earliest stages, no cure, according to the Lustgarten Foundation.

An estimated 49,000 Americans will be diagnosed this year alone, the foundation said.